Hey guys welcome back to the channel in this video we're going to go through the 50 best tips, tricks, hacks and features of a thermostat, and if you've got this video, this will be the first 10.. So, let's get right into it, number one being the auto changeover. I did a video a long time ago on this feature on a certain thermostat, but most thermostats, whether it's called auto changeover. Maybe they use a different verbiage called temperature range or, however they call it, but basically it's a range you can set on that thermostat, where, if you live in an area like i do where there's certain times of the year, that maybe it's a little chilly at Night and you want the heat to kick on just to knock the chill off and then it gets a little warm during the day.

And you know you just want a little ac to try to kind of cool it off a little, and instead of just constantly changing heat to cool heat to cool, you can set a temperature range and whether it gets above or below that range. That thermostat will tell that system come on number two. A lot of thermostats have some sort of auxiliary heat. Sometimes they'll have multiple terminals, they'll have a aux heat.

Aux e for emergency heat, sometimes they'll even have three different ones and the third one being like a w1 w2, a lot of thermostats they're all in one anyway, but just keep in mind. Even if you have a thermostat that has two of those or all three, your system itself might only have one backup heat source or one stage of backup heat and so a lot of times with a lot of those thermostats we'll actually end up. You know adding a jumper in there, so if i've got an aux and an e, so whether i put that thermostat in emergency heat or i have it in regular heat, but i want it to still bring on those backup heat strips, for example, whatever that backup Heat source is, i might actually jumper those two. So that way, it still controls that one backup heat source number three would be the backup heat stage.

Timer or i know some brands call it something different, but basically it's a timer that you can set. So that way, that thermostat gives your first stage heat a chance. It's literally a timer. It's got a set amount of time, and so, if you set it at say, let's just say 30 minutes or an hour whatever that you set it at, it will give that first stage heat.

So maybe a heat pump a chance to try to reach temperature before it brings on backup heat, and so in a lot of cases, your backup heat draws more energy, whether it be electricity or some sort of fossil fuel. But it's going to draw more energy than what the first stage heat would be and that timer is going to give that system a chance to reach temperature before bringing on that more energy consuming backup heat source number four would be batteries. I did a whole video a while back called three hvac secrets that heating and air contractors don't want you to know, and in that video, on the second secret i talked about a company i used to work at where a guy would add batteries, knowing that when They got low that customer would end up having to call back with another service call, and i got a lot of flack for that. Some guys saying.

Oh, you know what i've never seen that before and blah blah blah. But ultimately i wanted to touch on batteries in this video because there are some thermostats that you just don't have a choice. So if that thermostat's, not hardwired, you don't have a common wire going to it or that thermostat. If it were to lose power, you would have to reprogram it every time the power were to go out or just simply would not come back on, and sometimes you would add batteries to those thermostats, so they would operate correctly.

Ultimately, even if that thermostat has a low battery warning or error or whatever just keep in mind, sometimes those batteries start to get low. You could have a malfunctioning thermostat and it never even tells you that they're starting to get low a lot of our customers that have batteries i'll, tell them hey every new year's eve or every every fourth of july. Just pick out something on the calendar that you will remember, i can tell you every new year's eve. I go throughout my house and i change all the smoke detector batteries and i have a few other things that i just do.

I do it every year once a year, and i think if you have batteries in your thermostat, that should be one of them as well. You know just once a year just go ahead and get new batteries fresh batteries put in there and you'll never have to worry about it. The other thing i'll mention is keep in mind. A lot of thermostats have sensors, so you could have an outdoor temperature sensor or you could have an indoor temperature sensor of some type and a lot of those sensors are also battery operated and you want to make sure you're replacing those batteries from time to time.

As well, number five would be zoning and i wanted to touch on that with thermostats because keep in mind with most systems. Your thermostat is what we would call the brains of the system, so it's gon na send voltage on certain wires or maybe, if it's a communicating one, send a communication signal to the indoor or outdoor unit saying hey. This is what i want to happen because it's gotten hot in here or it's gotten cold in here whatever. But i wanted to touch on that because if you have a zone system, so if you have a house that has multiple thermostats, you know each zone has a thermostat and maybe a damper or two that control the ducts and the airflow to that particular zone.

Keep in mind the thermostats are not the brains of that system. If it's a zone system nine times out of ten, there will be some sort of module mounted close to the indoor unit and that thermostat is sending voltage on certain wires or that signal saying hey. This is what i'm seeing in my zone. This is what i want to happen, but, ultimately, that module is what decides? What opens what closes what you know, what gets turned on what happens at that point? Why does that matter to you? Well, if you were to go in and try to change that thermostat and you were to not program it correctly or wire it correctly back in, you could have problems with that thermostat sending the wrong signals to that module and have an issue.

And then, if you get a heating and air pro in there and they're not really used to electrical schematics and trying to figure all those things out, you could really have a problem on your hands. Number six would be a simple one, and that is cleaning your thermostat a lot of thermostats if their touch screen will have some sort of cleaning mode or setting in there. So you can actually turn on that mode and wipe down the screen, really good and not mess with the settings of the thermostat, but also in addition to that, i tell some of our customers from time to time. You know whether it's vacuuming the thermostat around it.

A little bit or getting you a can of that compressed air that some people will use for electronics or in the office, maybe cleaning their keyboard, get one of those and just kind of shoot it up in there just kind of blow. Some of that dust out of there you should have less problems just keep in mind. A lot of thermostats have some sort of sensor in there that keeps track of the temperature and that's how it decides, what it's going to do. Well, if all that stuff gets dirty, the electronics, the sensors or whatever, i've had thermostats over the years that do have issues because of that not huge issues but you'll get to where the thermostat doesn't read quite as accurately as it used to.

Maybe it thinks it's one temperature in the room when it's actually a couple degrees, hotter or cooler, but ultimately just trying to take care of that thermostat. It's just like any other electronic. You want to keep it clean and all that good stuff number seven. A lot of thermostats have what we would call an eco mode and an energy saving mode and a lot of them.

It's just as simple as just hitting a button or a setting on the home screen and just telling the thermostat that you're carrying more about energy savings than comfort some thermostats. You have to go a little further and go into the programming and change it from either comfort or energy, whatever the verbiage is, but basically the two options are you're telling that thermostat hey. I care more about energy savings. I want you to try to give the first stage more of a chance before you bring on backup stages and just try to save as much energy run as little as possible to keep the home comfortable, whereas the comfort setting is, it isn't afraid to run any Stage - and it usually wastes no time going to a second stage or third stage or whatever.

However, the thermostat is set up, basically running more at a level of comfort for you and trying to get there as quickly as possible. Typically might use a little more energy, but it's going to be a little bit more comfortable. I know there are some thermostats say like trane and american standard have a setting where it'll say like aggressive recovery or something of that effect. And basically that's what it's saying you know you want it to be more of a comfort.

It's trying to reach heating or cooling quicker, run at a higher speed or not waste any time making it to a second stage. Number eight would be a compressor protection delay and what that is a lot of thermostats have some sort of delay. If you make a change to that thermostat, if you change modes or temperature it'll have some sort of delay. So that way, there's no short cycling in the old days when we had mechanical thermostats so whether it being a mechanical mercury bulb or some sort of lever with a spring.

However, the thermostat was set up those thermostats. You could actually turn them up and down quickly and you would send voltage to the compressor and at times short cycling it with that initial spike of energy, and you could actually make compressors fail because of it. It's not good for a compressor and, as time went on a lot of systems, heat pumps, acs started coming out with delays on the boards themselves and that's still not uncommon. Today, some of them will have some sort of delay if it sees a quick jolt of energy or the power were to flicker or so on, but as time went on as we started to see more and more digital thermostats hit the market they themselves had the Delay in them, so if you again, if you were to change the mode or the power were to go out and back on before that, thermostat just sends voltage to that outdoor unit, it will have some sort of delay.

Number nine would be humidity control. A lot of thermostats on the market today can be also used as a humidistat years ago. It would be a whole separate little unit, so you'd have your thermostat on the wall and then you'd have your humidistat. That would control either humidifier or dehumidifier, depending on your home's needs and where you are in the country, but as time has gone on.

A lot of thermostats themselves can control the humidity and those items. Whether it's dry contacts in the thermostat itself or a lot of communicating thermostats, will have the signal sent to the indoor unit and the dry contacts would be located there wherever it is. A lot of those thermostats again can control humidifiers, dehumidifiers and so on and finally 10. I saved this for last in this video because i think it's a really neat feature, and that is customer service and you might say well what do you mean customer service? I mean we're talking about a thermostat here, and what i mean by that is a lot of thermostat manufacturers years ago would only cater to contractors that a lot of them didn't even sell to homeowners, but, as time has gone on, a lot of them will sell Directly to homeowners, you can go to a hardware, store big box store and buy a thermostat yourselves, and because of that, because of that relationship they want to sell direct to consumer.

A lot of them have some sort of customer service where they will help you. So you don't have to hire a pro in all cases. If you call them directly and you say hey, this is kind of what i have. This is what i'm seeing you know.

I got this going on, i'm replacing that my thermostat with yours and so on. A lot of times that customer service will help you wire or program your new thermostat, now they're not going to help. You fix your air conditioner in most cases, but they will help you if you are installing their product and you're having an issue you're, not quite sure where a wire goes or how something should be programmed. They will help you with that all that said, i hope that helps if you're in the market, for a heating and air system and you're, not in gryffindor's coverage area.

Before you spend thousands check out my website, new hvac guide, dot com, i've put so much stuff on that website. It's as if i wrote a book, but instead of a book that would become outdated. I can add things change things to this website, but i put so much information on there, a lot of it heating and air manufacturers and contractors. Don't even want you to know.

I've got a whole page called no-no's things to stay away from. I've got a page for my favorite heating and air brands versus ones that i'm not such a fan of all that can be found on the website. But if you are in gryffindor's coverage area, if you're in virginia in the northern neck middle peninsula, down through williamsburg virginia, give us a call we'll give you a free estimate and the best warranty in the area and we'd love to earn your business thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button we'll see you next time.